


what we deserve

by ImperialEvolution



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Because I can, Cheating, Daniel cannot human, I named Klein Isaac, Kepler's a dick, Klein has a rough go at it, Klein is a good boy, M/M, Mentioned Alcohol Abuse, Non-Explicit Sex, None of the descriptions are overtly graphic, break ups?, but they are explicitly mentioned, seriously guys this is not health behaviour, sue me, this is not a happy story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 16:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13744890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialEvolution/pseuds/ImperialEvolution
Summary: “You don’t deserve me,” he growls, bitter and self-loathing, one night, as Klein pries the whiskey bottle from his grip. The words sound awful, even to his own ears.“Daniel, please.” Klein looks so goddamn tired.“Daniel, please,” he echoes, laughing cynically. “Just leave, Klein.”“You’re drunk, Daniel.” It doesn’t sound like an insult. There’s no bait there. He’s too soft, he’s too kind.He doesn’t deserve him.





	what we deserve

They met after Daniel kissed Kepler for the first time.

Daniel was more than a little fucked up from giving Kepler nothing but cool respect and "Yessir"s. Kepler was nowhere to be seen, of course, (he'd been avoided Daniel like the plague) and Maxwell had skipped lunch break in favour of tweaking the programming of her newest AI project, a new version of Perseus.

It strikes Daniel that he hasn’t eaten alone in months. He usually eats with Maxwell, and even then, they barely ever leave the R&D department, so he doesn't use the cafeteria much, but Maxwell is too busy working, and won't order him Chinese (she keeps her Chinese place a closely guarded secret. Something about ruining her reputation?), so he has to make do.

And that's when Klein walks into his life. He just... sits down next to him. Like he's not one of the most dangerous men in the room, like he's not Daniel Jacobi. This catches his attention.

"Uh, who are you?" Daniel asks, eyes narrowed.

"Oh, uh—" he looks slightly flustered, as if he hadn't expected conversation (it's a nice look in him, though, Daniel thinks distantly)—"Klein. Isaac Klein." He pauses.

Daniel raises an eyebrow. "Where d'you work? I—"

"Haven't seen me around? No, I'm, uh, I'm new. I work in the Earth and Space division. Astrophysics. I'm studying for a degree at the moment, actually."

Daniel appraises him as he talks, studying his wide eyes and animated gestures. He talks a lot, much like Kepler, but he's more relaxed, open. It's kind of endearing, actually.

He stops, mid-sentence, and Daniel thinks he must have realised he wasn't really listening. He opens his mouth to make a feeble excuse when Klein says, "Shit, I didn't ask you who you were! I'm sorry!"

Daniel chuckles, surprisingly easily. This man seems to deserve the easy smile he can tug out of him. "It's fine. I'm Daniel." Wait, since when did he introduce himself by his first name? "Jacobi," he amends. "I work in weapons R&D."

He carefully avoids the part of his job that involves working with Kepler and killing people on an alarming frequency.

Klein doesn’t seem horrified by that discovery. In fact, he seemed interested. “Oh? What are you working on? Any field?”

“Uh, explosives, mostly. I’ve actually been working on a new prototype, it—” Daniel cuts himself off. Why was he talking to Klein? Sure, it wasn’t unpleasant by any stretch, but Daniel Jacobi didn’t just start talking to people just because they sit down next to him.

Klein lifted an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“Huh, yeah, fine. I just…” Fuck it. “I don’t usually talk to people about my work. I don’t usually talk to people. At all.” Daniel hides his nerves well, but that’s not to say he doesn’t feel the cold, heavy stone in his gut. He hasn’t talked to someone like this in ages.

Klein does something unexpected at that. He grins. “I guess I should consider myself lucky then.” He falters, reaching to grab a napkin from nearby. “Can I—” He looks away, focusing on nothing in particular. “Uh, can I get your number?”

Daniel almost laughs, but he doesn’t really want to scare Klein away. “Uh—” Oh god, now he was sounding like Klein. He looked at the man in question, who deflated significantly at Daniel’s hesitation. He doesn’t like it.

“Yes!” he blurts, his enthusiasm surprising himself as well as Klein. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, of course. Let me just…” Daniel fumbles in his pockets for a pen, pulling the napkin closer to him to scrawl is number onto it. Man, he hasn’t done this in ages.

“There.” He looks at Klein, appreciating the cut of his jaw and the softness in his eyes. He’s probably not gonna regret this. He stands, unable to stop a smirk from forming on his face. “I’ll see you around, Isaac.”

“Uh—” Isaac fumbles, and it does something to Daniel’s stomach, something like butterflies. “Uh, yeah. I’ll see you.”

Daniel catches his grin as he turns away, and softens his smirk into a gentle smile that he hides in his collar. He hopes he won’t be sorry he give this stranger his number.

* * *

 

They meet up a few times, and Isaac likes to think they’re dates. Daniel likes to think that too, but he doesn’t. And then Isaac kisses him, and instinctively Daniel kisses back.

Daniel… Well, Daniel doesn’t know how he feels about Isaac. He knows he likes him, but when they kiss, he’s so gentle. And he’s so kind and he’s so supportive, and all he can think is that he doesn’t deserve Isaac Klein.

* * *

 

“I don’t deserve you,” he says, one night, curled into Isaac’s side as they watch a film together.

“Don’t be stupid.” Isaac’s voice is so soft, and it hurts more than the knives and dangers of Kepler’s words.

Daniel wants to insist that _No, really, you don’t deserve me,_ but he tucks the words under his tongue instead, where they develop sharp edges and poison tones. Isaac doesn’t deserve those words. He’s not Warren Kepler.

* * *

 

“You don’t deserve me,” he growls, bitter and self-loathing, one night, as Isaac pries the whiskey bottle from his grip. The words sound awful, even to his own ears.

“Daniel, please.” Isaac looks so goddamn tired.

“ _Daniel, please,_ ” he echoes, laughing cynically. “Just leave, Klein.”

“You’re drunk, Daniel.” It doesn’t sound like an insult. There’s no bait there. He’s too soft, he’s too kind.

He doesn’t deserve him.

“Fuck you.”

Isaac sighs and methodically sets about getting him some aspirin. Why doesn’t he fight back? Why the fuck doesn’t he fight back?

He tucks those thoughts under his tongue, careful not to swallow them down with the aspirin Isaac got him.

* * *

 

There’s a night when Isaac crawls into his lap and kisses the skin of his neck. Daniel closes his eyes as Isaac works upward, fluttering kisses tracing his jawline. Daniel threads his hands in Isaac’s hair and presses into him, pulling hot, desperate, searing kisses from gentle lips.

“Slow down, Daniel,” Isaac whispers, pulling back as Daniel chases his lips, wanting more. “We have all night.”

Daniel thinks, not for the first time, that he’s so gentle.

(He can hear Isaac’s heartbeat, loud and fast, in his chest. Daniel’s remains slow as Isaac pulls agonisingly long kisses from his lips).

Later that night, with Isaac’s head between his thighs, Daniel bites back the word, _Sir_. Instead, he forces himself to say, “Isaac, _fuck_ ,” as he tucks Kepler’s name under his tongue. He closes his and imagines Kepler looking up at him with that goddamn smirk and those dark, dark eyes.

(Daniel came with his eyes closed, spitting out a name that doesn’t belong to the man in his head).

* * *

 

Another night, months later, he doesn’t go home with Isaac. Instead, he leaves work with Kepler, ending up pressed against the wall, moaning as Kepler grabs at his hips hard enough to leave bruises.

(He can hear Kepler’s heartbeat, loud and fast, in his chest. Daniel’s heart pounds as Kepler forces short, biting kisses from his lips).

He lets Kepler bite at the skin of his neck, whiskey-laced and intoxicating. Daniel bucks his hips against his superior officer’s, pulling Kepler down to his level with shaking, tense hands.

“Slow down, Mister Jacobi,” Kepler growls, sending shivers down Daniel’s spine. “We have all night.”

They both know that’s not true because a minute later, Kepler’s kneels between Daniel’s thighs, biting along his hipbone. “S-sir,” Daniel whines, threading his hands harshly through Kepler’s hair, pulling hard. “F-fuck, sir, please.”

He looks down to see Kepler grin up at him, all dark eyes and sharp teeth. Daniel doesn’t close his eyes, and he lets loose the words he’d tucked under his tongue.

* * *

 

They don’t have all night. In fact, they barely have five minutes after they finish before Daniel leaves. He cleans up quickly and heads home to where Isaac waits for him.

Isaac looks so happy to see him, so genuinely pleased that it tears at Daniel’s heart. _What the fuck am I doing?_  he thinks, his head still spinning from Kepler's touch.

Isaac bounds up to him, looping his arms around Daniel's shoulders. “Let’s go out tonight.”

Daniel smiles and tucks a word under his tongue, letting his hands settle on Isaac's waist. “Sure.”

Isaac presses a quick kiss into his lips before suggesting he gets changed.

(Did he taste the second-hand whiskey there, left from Kepler’s lips?)

“You don’t deserve me,” he says softly, much later, as Isaac pays for dinner. Isaac stares at him. “You deserve someone better.”

“You’re drunk, Daniel,” Isaac says, but he seems uncertain.

“I’m not. I’m not—I don’t—” _I don’t love you, I don’t want this, I don’t deserve you, I don’t I don’t I don’t —_

“—want to hurt you,” Daniel says, and tucks it under his tongue as well, just in case.

“You won’t.”

What a lie that was.

“I’m sorry.” And he is. As he leaves Isaac there, wrapping a scarf around his bruised neck, braving the cold night alone, he is sorry. He’s sorry he ever gave Isaac his number.

_I don’t deserve you._

**Author's Note:**

> This was really dark, and I am very sorry about that. (I'm not saying Halsey's Eyes Closed inspired this mess, but it was blasting on loop while I wrote). If you wanna yell at me for torturing Klein and Jacobi like this, hit me up @imperial-evolution on Tumblr.


End file.
